Like a Knight in Brown Polyester
by Serena Thorn
Summary: What if it had been Lamb to find Veronica at the Camelot instead of Logan?


Title: Like a Knight in Brown Polyester  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: Written for VM_Redux on LJ. What if it had been Lamb to find Veronica at the Camelot instead of Logan?  
Spoilers: 1x18  
Word Count: 2302Disclaimer: Veronica Mars is not owned by me, but by Rob Thomas. I'm simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment.  
A/N: Because I just don't have enough LoVe girls who want to kick my ass ;)

* * *

Veronica watched Ben pack the fertilizer into the back of his SUV. It was when she saw the rifle that she really began to worry. There were most definitely a few people she could call. One of which had to have been getting calls all day about the article. _Yeah, he'll be thrilled to hear from you._

"Veronica Mars, line two," Sacks told Lamb.

The sheriff wanted to hang up already. Nothing she had to say would be good. She was the reason he had been forced to spend his day holding the hands of irate parents and have his phone ringing off the hook. Being yelled at and hearing demands all damn day! He had half a mind to ignore her completely. But his desire to tell her off won out.

"What is it, Mars?" he snapped.

"Oh, you know me, Deputy," she sighed in that dreamy tone of hers, "just wanted to check in, ask you what color panties you're wearing."

He wasn't amused. "Five seconds, Veronica. Don't waste them."

"You've heard about the bomb threats at the school, I take it?"

"All I've heard about today thanks to you. Let me guess, you have someone you want to see me try to pin the blame on?"

"Wrong as usual. I was just looking at the new kid in our class in the parking lot of the hardware store packing bag after bag of fertilizer into his car. Now one could presume he's taking Advanced Chem, I doubt it but who knows. However that wouldn't explain the sniper rifle he has to go with."

Don sat forward in his chair. It was the rifle that got his attention. "What's this kid's name?"

"Ben -" That was as far as Veronica got before she heard her passenger door open and saw the black-clad young man climbing in.

"Ben who?" Lamb asked.

"Oh my god, what are you doing?" Veronica asked as she casually dropped her phone from her hand.

"We're going to go for a little drive," Ben stated.

Lamb was still listening. Veronica just might be smarter than he gave her credit for after all. Getting Ben to talk, to inadvertently tell him through the phone he didn't know was still on where they were going… He could only hope.

He was already heading to his cruiser, not even stopping to tell anyone what was happening. He couldn't run the risk of Ben hearing his end of the line. Veronica might have been a constant pain in his ass for the last year and a half but he also knew he wasn't going to leave her alone with a possible bomber who had just hijacked her car.

"The Camelot?" Veronica asked when Ben told her she had to know where they were headed given that she had to have followed him there. Her voice was clear and raised just enough, hoping that Lamb was still listening and would help her.

He was and he had already made up his mind that he would. All he could think as he sped through another red light was how this phone call would show up on Veronica's cell phone records and the second Keith found out it would be his ass being handed to him if he did nothing. Of all the times Lamb had thought Veronica was crying wolf he could tell this wasn't one of them. She was trying way too hard to sound calm and collected.

"People will be looking for me. Armed people," Veronica went on as Ben all but dragged her up the stairs of the motel.

A second later they both caught the sound of a siren. Veronica's eyes closed for half a second, taking the moment to hope once more it would be Lamb. She knew she would never in her life be so relieved to see him if this was in fact him coming to her rescue.

"Guess you weren't kidding," Ben sighed as he and Veronica reached the top of the stairs.

They were already in Ben's room by the time Lamb bounded up the stairs. Gun in hand, he kicked the door open. "Let her go," he ordered when he saw Ben's surprised expression.

"It's not what you think," Ben told him.

"Then prove it," Don nodded, "let her go."

"I need to show you something," the younger man stated as he slowly reached into his pocket.

"Hey! Hands where I can see 'em!" Lamb ordered.

"I'm not reaching for a weapon. I'm reaching for my badge."

His gun still trained on Ben, Lamb took a deep breath. "Slowly."

Ben nodded once and inched his hand back into his pocket before pulling out his agent ID. "I'm a Federal Agent."

Lamb looked. It was real. With that he lowered his gun and looked back to Veronica who still seemed to be getting her bearings.

"I still need to talk to you," Ben told Veronica. "Alone."

She looked to Lamb. "It's okay."

"I'll be right outside. Don't be long."

Ten minutes later Veronica had agreed to help Ben and was heading back out of the motel room. Why she was surprised to see Lamb was still there she wasn't sure.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I just wish he'd said he was an agent long before he did. Would have saved you a trip too." She really hated being embarrassed in front of him.

"You did the right thing," he told her.

"Calling you?" she almost laughed. Since when did he consider that a good thing?

"Leaving your phone on, getting him to talk, coming to me with this before it was too late."

Moving to cross in front of him back to the stairs, Veronica half-smirked before she moved close. "Thanks for listening and for showing up when you did." With that she would go on to wonder if she had been in shock or just confused by him having literally ridden to rescue like a knight in brown polyester because she moved just a little closer and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

But Lamb wasn't about to let her leave it at that. Not after this, not when he had done this for her.

Veronica had barely had enough time to register that he had even reached out to her before his lips came down onto hers.

His kiss was anything but chaste and Veronica surprised them both when she wrapped her arms around him. When his had encircled her she didn't know, but there they were kissing with years' worth of pent-up longing just outside of the Camelot as though they had never been enemies.

All rational thought was quickly evading Veronica in that moment. No inner voice screaming that it was her mortal enemy she was kissing, no thoughts of how she had been all but certain Ben was anything but a cop ten minutes ago, simply nothing beyond the taste of cinnamon as Lamb's tongue plundered her mouth and the feel of his firm body and even firmer gun belt against her.

"Blue," Lamb sighed finally when they broke apart for much needed gulps of air.

"Huh?" She stared up at him, more surprised that she hadn't pushed him away than she had been that he had kissed her in the first place.

"My boxers are blue," he smirked.

She laughed nervously before turning to head back down the stairs. "I've gotta check out this other lead," she finally told him.

"The other kid," he nodded.

"I'll let you know what I find out," she smiled before heading to and climbing into her car.

Without a word Lamb let her go, knowing that was the closest to a 'see you later' he would get today. It was still enough, he decided.

**

"Veronica," Leo smiled a the sight of her in the station the next night.

"Hi," she smiled back, more than a little uncertain she should be there. Sure she had solved the case, but seeing Lamb now? She had to remind herself to breathe. "Is the sheriff around?"

"You didn't come to see me? I'm crushed," Leo smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against his desk.

"I talked to him earlier, there are some things about the bomb threats he should know."

Leo nodded and waved her back to Lamb's office after telling her he was in and wasn't any more busy than usual.

"Working hard or hardly working," Veronica snarked as she walked in to find Lamb looking over a file at his desk.

"Depends. What have you got for me?"

"A question. What was that back at the Camelot? Doing that just after thinking I was going to be kidnapped or killed or whatever when a couple minutes before that you seemed happy with the idea of me disappearing?"

"I meant about the bomb threats," he stated, ignoring her question. He had never been one for talking about what a kiss or sex or dinner or a drink meant. He was just him and the day before he had kissed her. Why couldn't it just be left at that?

"Solved. Someone was framing Norris and there wasn't any real bomb. Answer me, Lamb. What was that yesterday?"

He sighed and sat back in his chair. "You kissed me first. Just figured I'd give you the full experience what with being your hero and all."

Veronica almost laughed. "Hero? You?" Okay, he had answered her call when she thought she was in danger.

Lamb stood and walked around to face her. He was going to enjoy this. He had broken her once and he had ended up doing her a favor. The whole town had him to thank for every case she solved and everyone she saved, this hard-edged Veronica Mars she never would have become had he held her hand that day. And he was about to break her in another way, strip her of one of the biggest lies she had forced herself to believe, once again he was going to do her a favor.

"You really think it'll be this easy?" Veronica asked as he took hold of her and pulled her body to his.

"You could've called anyone, Veronica. Your daddy, D'Amato. But you called me."

"I called the sheriff," she replied, remaining still in his hold.

Lamb half-smiled. "Was that or was that not your tongue in my mouth yesterday?"

Veronica scoffed. He had started it. Alright, maybe she technically had but she hadn't expected him to do what he had done, for him to follow her lead and further it.

"Yeah. That's what I thought. Deny it all you want, Mars. We both know why you came here tonight and I'll be more than happy to give it to you, when you're old enough."

"So I have to wait for my lobotomy? Well that's not fair."

That time Lamb laughed. "I can make you forget your name, that's for sure."

Veronica only had time to roll her eyes before his lips locked onto hers once more. Her first instinct was to shove him away, but he still tasted like cinnamon and being in his arms wasn't exactly terrible.

_Oh God. Who gave Lamb permission to be a good kisser?!_ her inner voice demanded as she slanted her mouth against his. Still she refused to admit defeat. She was still Veronica Mars and an instant later she was saying so.

Lamb lowered his hands to her ass as he kissed her harder.

Veronica sighed out into his mouth when he squeezed, but a moment later she tore her lips away from his again and replied, "Veronica Mars."

That time Lamb changed tactics. He kissed and nipped at her neck, his left hand still cupping her cheek and holding her to him, his right coming up to her breast and giving it a less than gentle squeeze. He knew he had her when she got as far as "Veroni -" before a sharp gasp came up from her throat and cut her off.

"That's more like it," he sighed into the crook of her neck before pulling away completely from her. He couldn't help but stare for a moment. Disheveled clothes, kiss-swollen lips, a few red marks on her neck that would fade by the time she got home (he had been careful only for the reason he had never wanted to meet the receiving end of Keith's shotgun), hard, little tits pleading for more of his attention and a wanton look in her blues that would have been more than enough to make him as hard as granite if they weren't in his office and she wasn't still seventeen. Okay, that second one he could ignore, the first wasn't so easy.

"Weren't you the one complaining about me calling you yesterday?" Veronica's first rational thought in minutes was finally voicing itself as she caught how he was staring at her.

"That was before you proved you still like me," Lamb shot back with his best jackass grin. He knew it only irritated her because she knew he was right.

"I never said that," Veronica smiled back.

Lamb moved close again and lowered his voice as he told her, "You don't have to."

"You think you know me now, do you?"

"I always knew you, Mars. I just had to wait until you figured it out. Didn't expect it to be yesterday, but I'll take it."

There were still in his office, his deputies - including Leo - were right outside and Keith was expecting her home any minute. Yet none of that changed how good it felt to have her body pressed to his or how good he tasted. For those reasons Veronica wasn't complaining when she soon found herself kissing Lamb again.

The End


End file.
